Category: Time Since Fire

Emma gives us a glimpse into the world of flying insects

17/9/2020

As a research group, we've given a disproportionate level of attention to furry animals over the past few years, but Emma Window is helping redress the balance with her study of the effects of fire on flying insects. Given that she's been unable to visit the lab under coronavirus, she's got the lab to come to her!

I’m currently working my way through 162 invertebrate samples from 27 sites in the Otway Ranges with the aim of understanding the effect fire has on flying insect population structure in Australia. Existing Australian studies on fire and insects have primarily focused on terrestrial and litter dwelling invertebrates, which may have a different response to fire than their flying counterparts. Studies that include flying insects have been conducted overseas in forests where the vegetation structure is very different to that of Australian forests.

Right now I’m working through all of the beetle samples, the order in which we collected the highest number of individuals. My results will hopefully add to our knowledge of the current global pollinator decline, and aid future research on the recovery of insectivorous animals after fire. All the disruption from coronavirus has really slowed things down for me but I’ve finally gotten my hands on my insects again and can carry on while I work from home.

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A holy grail for ecological fire management and research: What aspects of the fire regime make plants and animals tick?

25/2/2018

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Is that a ghostly presence on the right-hand-side or a tree stump?

Growth-stage optimisation determines the proportions of vegetation growth stages (categorical representations of time since fire) that maximise species diversity, providing an operational goal for fire managers. To date, optimisation has only been applied to growth stages in a fire management context but other aspects of fire regimes, such as severity, are also likely to influence species diversity.

In our new paper, we ask:
1 How do growth stage and fire severity influence plant and vertebrate species’ occurrence?
2 What mix of growth stages and fire severities maximises the diversity of these groups?

We surveyed birds, mammals and plants in the tall wet forest of Victoria’s Central Highlands, and found that growth stage predicted the occurrence of many species. Severity of the most recent fire was important over and above growth stage for a small subset of species; however, low-severity fire was a more important driver of species diversity than any other growth stage or severity category.

Growth stage is a good surrogate for developing conservation targets in tall wet forests, but does not capture the full range of species’ fire responses. More complex versions of growth stage optimisation that accommodate multiple fire-regime variables need to be explored to yield ecologically meaningful conservation goals.

Swan, M., Sitters, H., Cawson, J., Duff, T., Wibisono, Y. & York, A. (2018). Fire planning for multispecies conservation: Integrating growth stage and fire severity. Forest Ecology and Management 415-416: 85-97

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Volunteer opportunity: microbats and fire in the Otway Ranges

9/10/2017

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Sandra is looking for volunteers to join her on short field trips between now and Christmas. She'll be working with bat detectors and invertebrate traps at various sites in the beautiful Otway Ranges.

A reasonable level of fitness is required for walking short distances through the bush to sites without established walking tracks.

All food, accommodation, coffee etc. will be provided. Upcoming dates are:

October
Sun 15 – Mon 16

November
Sun 5 – Mon 6
Sat 11 – Sun 12

December
Sun 3 – Mon 4
Sun 10 – Mon 11
Sun 17

If you’d like to join in or find out more, please contact Sandra.

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How does fire affect pollination of a sexually deceptive orchid?

20/10/2016

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The effects of fire on pollination haven’t been explored in sexually deceptive systems. Sexually deceptive plants achieve pollination by mimicking the sex pheromone of female insects in order to attract male insects. These systems are highly specialised, with the orchid often being pollinated by a single insect species.

In our new paper, we observed the frequency of pollinator visits to flowers of a sexually deceptive orchid, Caladenia tentaculata, and related it to the post-fire age class of heathy woodland in south-western Victoria.

We also related the number of the pollinator’s putative larval hosts (scarab beetles) captured at these sites to age class. At the local scale, visitation was highest in recently burnt sites. At the landscape scale, positive associations were observed between (1) putative pollinator hosts and vegetation burnt 36–50 years ago, and (2) pollinator visitation and vegetation burnt more than 50 years ago. Local- and landscape-scale effects on visitation were synergistic, such that visitation was greatest when fire age was variable within the pollinator foraging range.

Brown, J., York, A. & Christie, F. (2016). Fire effects on pollination in a sexually-deceptive orchid. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 25: 888-895.

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How does the soil seedbank change with time since fire?

21/9/2015

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Soil seedbanks play a key role in the post-fire recruitment of many plant species.
Seedbank diversity can be influenced by spatial variability, environmental variability, and fire history (e.g. time since fire). Unlike aboveground vegetation, relationships between these factors and soil seedbank diversity remain largely unknown.

In our new paper we partitioned the influence of spatial and environmental variability from that of time since fire (TSF) to explain how these factors interact with seedbank diversity, and ultimately to assist conservation managers in their application of prescribed burning.

We germinated soil seedbank samples from sites ranging from 1 to 75 years since fire in a heathy-woodland ecosystem across the Otway Ranges. We measured spatial and environmental variability across sites in order to partition the influence of these variables and TSF on propagules available for recruitment.

We found seedbank composition did not change considerably over time, suggesting, in this ecosystem, pre-fire age is not strongly influencing propagules available for recruitment post-fire. Our results suggest that spatial and environmental variability influence seedbank composition more than TSF.

Chick, M., Cohn, J., Nitschke, C. & York, A. (in press). Lack of soil seedbank change with time since fire: Relevance to seed supply after prescribed burns. International Journal of Wildland Fire.

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How does fire affect ecosystem function?

26/5/2015

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Patchy vegetation attracts birds that perform diverse functions

The results of our new paper, available as an Ecological Applications Preprint, suggest that use of patchy fire to break up large expanses of mature vegetation may enhance ecosystem function.

We studied the responses of bird functional diversity to TSF and two direct measures of environmental variation. Six bird functional traits (body mass, clutch size, food type, foraging behaviour, foraging location and nest form) were used to calculate functional diversity.

Functional richness was negatively related to TSF, suggesting that recent prescribed fire creates patchy vegetation and provides greater opportunities for species to partition resources. Buff-rumped Thornbill and Superb Fairy-wren were among the seven species more common in young vegetation than old, and all seven species build dome-shaped nests. This nest type offers better camouflage and shelter against predation than more open nests, but we lack a definitive explanation as to why dome-shaped nest-builders prefer younger vegetation.

We suggest that controlled use of patchy prescribed fire to break up large expanses of mature vegetation is likely to help sustain functional diversity.

Sitters, H., Di Stefano, J., Christie, F., Swan, M. & York, A. (in press). Bird functional diversity decreases with time since disturbance: does patchy prescribed fire enhance ecosystem function? Ecological Applications.

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How does habitat structure influence animal responses to fire?

5/5/2015

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Predicting the effects of fire on biota is important for biodiversity conservation. Time since fire is often used to predict the occurrence of fauna, yet for many species it is change in resource availability to which animals actually respond. If resource availability is only weakly related to time, prediction of fire-fauna relationships will be uncertain.

In our new paper available as an Ecological Applications Preprint, we used a large diverse landscape in the Otways to investigate relationships between ground-dwelling mammal occurrence, time since fire and habitat structure (a measure of resource availability).

We found that time since fire was moderately correlated with habitat structure yet was a poor surrogate for animal occurrence. Habitat structure was a better predictor of occurrence than time since fire for all species.

Our results suggest that time since fire is unlikely to be a useful surrogate for ground-dwelling mammals in diverse fire-prone landscapes, where biodiversity conservation will benefit from a combined understanding of (a) fauna-resource relationships and (b) the ways in which both planned fire and wildfire alter the availability of resources important to animals.

Swan, M., Christie, F.J., Sitters, H., York, A. & Di Stefano, J. (In press). Predicting faunal fire responses in heterogeneous landscapes: the role of habitat structure. Ecological Applications.

Southern Brown Bandicoot

Swamp Rat

Long-nosed Bandicoot

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Welcome to

Fire Ecology and

Biodiversity

Emma gives us a glimpse into the world of flying insects

A holy grail for ecological fire management and research: What aspects of the fire regime make plants and animals tick?

Volunteer opportunity: microbats and fire in the Otway Ranges

How does fire affect pollination of a sexually deceptive orchid?

How does the soil seedbank change with time since fire?

How does fire affect ecosystem function?

How does habitat structure influence animal responses to fire?

Author

Archives

Categories

Links

Where to find us

University of Melbourne
4 Water Street
Creswick
Victoria 3363

Phone +61 (0)3 5321 4300 or email us

Welcome to Fire Ecology andBiodiversity

Emma gives us a glimpse into the world of flying insects

A holy grail for ecological fire management and research: What aspects of the fire regime make plants and animals tick?

Volunteer opportunity: microbats and fire in the Otway Ranges

How does fire affect pollination of a sexually deceptive orchid?

How does the soil seedbank change with time since fire?

How does fire affect ecosystem function?﻿

How does habitat structure influence animal responses to fire?

Author

Archives

Categories

Links

Where to find usUniversity of Melbourne4 Water StreetCreswickVictoria 3363Phone +61 (0)3 5321 4300 or email us

Welcome to

Fire Ecology and

Biodiversity

How does fire affect ecosystem function?

Where to find us

University of Melbourne
4 Water Street
Creswick
Victoria 3363

Phone +61 (0)3 5321 4300 or email us